Déjà vu! With the resignation of several board members, for family reasons, I was asked to consider the temporary position of the IYHA presidency.

Some of you may know me; but most of you are younger families in the organization. I’ve been involved in hockey all my life. I’ve held the positions of C Coordinator, Secretary, Registration Coordinator, and Ice Scheduler for IYHA. I’ve sanctioned tournaments for MN Hockey, and am an Association Registrar for USA Hockey.

I want to recognize those on the board, and those that have recently stepped down. Being active on the Board, or one of its standing committees is no easy task. So, when your child doesn’t make the team you think they should have, the bills seem high, the win-loss record is under .500, and you’ve reached your boiling point, take a step back. Remember these people are volunteers.

It’s now August, but April will come around sooner that we think. This position, along with others, will be up for election, and can use good candidates. They’re pretty much thankless jobs, but you meet good people, see the smiles on kids’ faces, and even get to watch some good hockey.

I’m looking forward to reacquainting myself with IYHA, so for now, feel free to contact me. Let me know what is important to you. I get all my hockey calls on my cell. That number is 612-619-0846. You can send me an email with your comments at
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See you at registration…..

IYHA 2006-2007 Season Registration Dates:

All are in the Freedom Park Warming House Fireside Room.

Tuesday, August 8th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Saturday, August 12th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30.

Thursday, September 14th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

There is a mail in option this year for registration. Stay tuned! You will receive the registration forms electronically in a separate email. (If you have been receiving your newsletter in the mail, registration forms will be coming in the mail.)

*** Remember to bring your 20,000 Puck Club sheet with you to registration! ***

Girls Teams tournaments:

John Donovan has found 4 tournaments for each of the girls teams. He would like to have feedback from any of the girls, parents and coaches about the tournaments—which ones were good, should continue this year, etc. Please contact John if you want to have input about which tournaments to participate in. He will make decisions by August 10th. 651-592-1187

SUMMER PARADES!

Show your support for IRONDALE Youth Hockey by rollerblading this summer!

Players, parents, and coaches are all encouraged to participate!

It is a great time for rollerblading, passing out candy, and promoting the “cool” sport of HOCKEY!

Mark your calendar for these parades:

August 4, Friday 7:00 PM VillageFest, St. Anthony

August 10, Thursday 6:00 PM Stockyard Days, New Brighton

August 20, Sunday 3:00 PM Festival in the Park, Mounds View

Please consider volunteering with the parades. Need some one to:

§Get the candy and bring to parades *** Provide coolers, water and cups *** Drive the lead vehicle *** Change a go-kart into a “hockey puck” float ****

If you have any questions, please contact me at 651-639-1543 ----- Cheryl Mason

Meet at staging area between 2:15 and 2:45 PM. Staging area is Mounds View Community Center on Edgewood Drive and Bronson Drive directly across from Mounds View City Hall

IYHA First Annual Sponsorship Day

Mark and reserve this day on your calendar – Saturday August 19th!

This will be the first annual Irondale Youth Hockey Sponsorship Day. Players, supervised by parents will go into the community and ask for a sponsorship donation. IYHA has all the necessary city permits and we are working on getting endorsements from the Mayor of each community.

The donations received from this sponsorship day will go directly toward player development and reducing costs for all players this year. Families arehighly encouragedto participate since the proceeds will benefit the entire association, from Mites to Bantams. Greater participation will translate to more money raised for our association.

A calling chain will begin this weekend and every family in our association will be contacted.

How this works:

Saturday, August 19th, meet at Irondale High School at 8:30 am.

Players (girls and boys) and parents will be divided into groups.

Each group will be given an area to canvas. Each group will also be given all of the necessary papers necessary for this event.

The morning event is from 9 to noon, and teams will meet back at Irondale High School to turn in donations and get a new route and supplies.

The afternoon event is from 1 to 4 pm, and teams will meet back at Irondale High School to turn in donations.

Show your support and come skate with, but remember to bring a friend who wants to give hockey a try. Helmets required (sport helmets are acceptable).

We need coaches from all levels to help our new skaters.

We need volunteers to help: pass out cookies and juice, talk to parents, help skaters lace up skates, and just show your support!

Other volunteers needs right now are below. Contact Cheryl Mason:

1.Thanksgiving and January tournament planning. This is our number one fundraising event and we need your help!

2.Schwann’s Fundraising Program. This is a new opportunity which is low effort and can potentially be a significant source of fundraising money.

Corporate Fundraising Drive. We have had business and corporate sponsorship in the past, but the plan is to have a more organized effort and increase our donations from the community. We already have a great start on this and a very motivated core group!

Player Development Update

The Irondale Player Development Committee has been gathering the list of applicants for IYHA’s new Director of Player and Coach Development throughout the month of July with the application deadline being July 28.

With the deadline passed last week, we have ten candidates who have submitted their resume and references to the committee. Now the task is to begin the interview process. A shortlist of two to three candidates will be selected from the interviews. After these candidates are identified, an association-wide question and answer session will be held on August 14, 2006 beginning at 6:15 PM (site to be announced). At this meeting, finalists will give a short presentation and attendees will have the chance to ask questions and to give your input to the committee and board of directors. Please plan on attending this meeting so the committee and board of directors can hear your input.

Questions and comments about Player Development are always welcome. Email or contact Mark Mohar at 651-639-1908.

The IYHA boys tryout process is designed to best evaluate players’ skills in the game of hockey using repetitive drills throughout the course of the evaluation period. Our current tryout model uses six evaluation hours. The results of the tryouts only determine the teams, not how much a player will develop or how much fun the player will have during the season.

Evaluators are selected individuals who have extensive hockey backgrounds. To get the greatest impartiality, they are individuals who have no kids within the Irondale program. These individuals have little or no exposure to Irondale players prior to the tryout process. As part of the evaluator recruitment, they are asked about their current contacts within IYHA, and if they are aware or know of any players in the Association. The on-ice tryout coach is not an evaluator and has no input inside the evaluators’ room.

The Program Coordinator supervises all activity in the evaluators’ room. A person that is not involved in the tryout process is not allowed in the evaluator’s room during the tryout session. Parents / families are not to sit in the stands with the evaluators.

Players are given one of two color tryout pullover before the first tryout. The pullover the player is given at the beginning of tryouts is the jersey the player should wear for each tryout unless changed by the on-ice tryout coach. It is helpful if players wear a like color underneath their tryout pullover. No player name may be on any jersey or helmet. Any marking that would identify an individual player may not be worn during tryouts. Starting in 2006, players will be required to wear the white, home Irondale socks given to players before tryouts. These socks will be the players’ game socks for the year, so they will be only worn during tryouts and during home games. If there is not an evaluation during an hour, stated “NO EVALUATION” on the schedule, players are not to wear their tryout pullovers.

Drills are provided by the on-ice tryout coach and are designed to measure and exhibit speed and quickness, balance, stick handling, passing, and shooting skills as well as hustle. Several players are run through drills simultaneously so that they do not know when or if they are being evaluated at a certain time. Other sports and other hockey associations isolate players and use less time to evaluate skills during drills, thus putting too much pressure on young athletes not to make mistakes. Many mistakes occur during the course of a hockey game. Often, these mistakes do not lead to any effect other than the player or team needing to get up and try again. Tryouts should be no different.

Scrimmages are comprised of several different formats so evaluators can see players in many situations. For the first few tryouts, no line combinations are created. The on-ice tryout coach decides the number of players that will go out on each shift. This form of “rolling” line changes will allow most players to play together or against each other during the course of the session.

In the later tryouts, line combinations are set up so evaluators can see specific players on the ice at a certain time. These combinations are created based on previous tryout sessions. Care is taken to ensure all players are on the ice the same number of times during an hour, even if it means a player may sit out for a number of shifts in a row. This is sometimes necessary to get the right combinations when there are an odd number of players on a tryout team.

Jersey changes occur during some sessions for several reasons. First, they may be to even the number of players on the tryout teams. (continued)

Second, they may be used to separate players who are similar in the current tryout rankings. Lastly, they may be used to make the tryout teams more equal so one team is not dominating the scrimmages. These jersey changes are noted carefully on evaluators’ evaluation sheets and in the master player- number list held by the program coordinator.

Evaluators do not score players on specific skills during tryouts. Players are divided by evaluators into a top and bottom group. A unanimous decision by all evaluators is required to place a player on the top or bottom group. After a player has been identified to being within either group, they are checked in the next tryout sessions to make sure they would not drop or rise into the other group. This process continues for the first few hours of tryouts.

Towards the end of tryouts, a group of 8-14 players have not been moved into the top or bottom group. There may be two groups: a bubble between ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams or between ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams. When the group is determined, these players are then ranked by evaluators compared to the other players within the bubble group. These rankings will be used to make the toughest decisions in the tryout process: the divisions between teams.

Goalies are evaluated in several hours during tryouts. Goalies are ranked compared to one another. Goalies are evaluated in areas of quickness, agility, positioning, hustle, proper technical movements, and reaction.

When tryouts are completed, the program coordinator has one or two days to create a list of players who have been selected to each specific team. Parent head coaches will be selected during this time. Team size will be determined based on a goal set by the program coordinator prior to tryouts beginning. Sometimes, it is necessary to expand or contract the team size by one depending on the results of evaluations.

‘A’ team Head Coaches are given the opportunity to select 2 or 3 players from the bubble group to fill out their final roster. The coaches are

given the results of tryouts along with the year of play a player has at that specific level. (e.g. 1st Year or 2nd Year). After the teams are selected, coaches are responsible for contacting their team. If there are two or more goalies that are close in ranking, the Head Coach would have the option to pick the goalies that have not been placed on a team based on raw rankings from evaluations. The number of goalies on a team will be determined based on the rankings from evaluations depending on where the clear cut divisions with rankings occur should there be an odd number of goalies at a level.

Please feel free to come to the meetings. If you wish to have a copy of any information which is distributed at any meeting, please email or call Niki and it will be mailed to you. Upcoming dates for 2005 Board meetings are the

third Thursday of every month at 6:30 p.m. Our meetings have at in the New Brighton Family Service Center.

2006: July 20, August 17, September 21,

October 19, November 16, December 14 (December meeting week changed due to holiday).

NOTE: If you wish to be on the agenda for the meeting, please contact Sue Sentieri.

Lake Region Board Meetings:

Lake Region Hockey meetings are open meetings. Contact Jeanne Falconer for dates and times of the next meetings.

Sponsorships:

There have been several teams that have sponsors for their teams. These are listed below. This part of the newsletter will continue throughout the rest of the IYHA season. Please notify Niki Gjere of any additions or corrections. (Please forward information about websites and addresses, etc.) Many thanks to our sponsors!

Cheryl Mason: Updates. Anticipate a meeting with Dean about Tournament maybe next Thursday (open to all?) Discussed email received from Jim’s email. Need to address Edison—shouldn’t be a problem. Is Association to Association. Tri City—would have to be released from District 3.Ice: Ice Committee met. Did not do much shared ice last year. Going to be much more shared ice this year. Got good, quality hours. Every Monday will have 4 hours at the Super Rink; 80 hours at the Coliseum, seeking more hours. Mariucci and Ridder will work with us on parking prices for ice time that we have there.

Resignations: Have received resignations from Chris Tahti, Girls Program Coordinator and Renae Olesen, Ice Commissioner. Motion to accept their resignations from the Board of Directors (NG) (JF), Discussion, Motion carried.

Vote on Candidates for Open Positions: May have a candidate in the Ice Commissioner. She will consider this and inform Cheryl if she is interested. We have one candidate that has declared intent to volunteer for the role of President. Bob states that there is another person that is interested; he is willing to participate if he is asked to serve in the role. Motion to elect Sue Sentieri for President of the IYHA, (CM) (JF), discussion, motion carried, one abstention. Bob Gabler and Chris Drews are interested in being on the Nominating Committee. Niki Gjere volunteers for the Board position. No vote at this time for the committee; more for future positions open at the end of the terms of office. All can recruit for Girls Coordinator; will follow through and recruit for the position.

Girls Program: Tom Welty said that a group of parents / coaches got together last week to talk about moving the Girls Program forward. Nobody has formally stepped forward to agree to the position. Will continue to work on recruitment for the position and assuring that the work of the Girls Program goes forward.

Board Roundtable:

President: open. No report. Has received requests from TriCity and from Edison for waivers.

Vice President: Cheryl Mason. Sent out information in the last newsletter about the first Annual IYHA Sponsorship Day. Still working on details. All permits have been obtained. Working on tournaments—had a good meeting with the Mounds View members. Working on expanding, possibly changing the mix of teams. Working on Parades. August 4 St. Anthony Village Fest. Will be giving out flyers. Two other parades in August. Chris Drews may be interested in working at Stockyard Days for a booth to get information out, raise money, sponsorships, etc. Cheryl has asked for volunteer needs.

Secretary: Niki Gjere. Newsletter deadline is August 1st. Handbook—Tom O’Keefe is interested in helping Niki in working on this. Mark will also help. Postmarked by August 7th, bids open for photography, mail to the post office box (IYHA, P.O. Box 120114, New Brighton, MN 55112); will be decided at the August 17th meeting.

Treasurer: Tom O’Keefe. Reviewed the submissions for budget received so far, and discussed areas that had not submitted yet. Ice time for warm ups and try outs,

Boys Program Coordinator: Mark Mohar. We have 21 goalies registered for the Goalie Clinic. Need to put request in for Coaches again. Pee Wee numbers are down, talking with other Associations to see if they have extra players they don’t have teams for, will investigate that. Talked with metro Football—will coordinate warm ups and tryouts with the football schedule.

Player and Coach Development Committee report: Mark Mohar.We have 8 applicants for the Player Development position. The ad is in Let’s Play Hockey. Our application deadline is July 28th. Any members of our Association are welcome to apply at
. Will narrow down / interview, hope to have a candidate for approval at the Board meeting in August. Would like to have this person in place before warm-ups. Looking for a good teacher.

Girls Program Coordinator: Position vacant. See above for comments (regarding work group). Working on going back to the schools to recruit. If there are others, then very interested in pooling efforts. John Donovan: found 4 tournaments for each of the girls teams—would like feedback from any of the girls and parents. If no call back by August 10th, will pare down to August 10th. 651-592-1187 or email.

Initiation Program Coordinator: Bob Gabler. Contacted by the Minnesota Wild and we are in the Little Chippers program. We need to sell 150 tickets. The Little Chippers is having 14 kids do a 7 on 7 scrimmage between the 1st and 2nd period of a Minnesota Wild game. Mark presents information about the Twins Tickets—if you buy them for $20 you can get $6.00 per ticket. In process of recruiting Mini-Mite coaches. Need to make sure that we have information about the CEP courses. Al brought 5 helmets as a donation. Make sure that we tell parents the correct colors of jerseys and helmet to wear.

Ice Commissioner: position vacant. (report has been given previously).

Registration Coordinator: Jeanne Falconer. A person has approached IYHA and asked about doing on-line registration. Last year this was cost prohibitive. Will put forms on website and will email, will use the PO Box. We have to pay for registration for Saturday, will be 9-11:30 in the morning on Saturday, August 12th. Ad will be in the newspaper for a month. Will need new ring binders—will not have them printed. Will work with Tom O’Keefe about setting the registration fees.

Equipment Coordinator: Randy Bortot. Ordered socks and initiation jerseys today. Jerseys are on their 8th year. They are still in good shape.

District Representative: Tom Welty. No report. District doesn’t meet during the summer. The District will meet in August.

Additional Reports:

Lake Region Hockey Association: Jeanne Falconer. Champps needs a Bingo card seller. Lake Region Hockey would like to thank John Dalnes who donated his truck, a worker, and time to move things from Cousineau’s. Brought up bracket changes at Tournament (potential), and they appreciated whatever the tournament is trying to do to keep the numbers up. On August 15th at 7:30 the entire Board is invited to the Lake Region meeting. Will be at the Lake Johanna fire station on Hodgeson. Mo’s is up and running, there is expense in doing the start up. They are still looking at other sites. Question about why checks need to be written to a specific person or entity—and not just IYHA or Mounds View. Lake Region cannot write the Goalie Coach a check, they will write it to IYHA for the specific purpose of the coach. The Control Board insisted on this.